Right now, the Flyers aren’t a playoff team. If the season ended today, they’d finish nine points out of a playoff spot. They have a 3.9% chance to make the playoffs, and that’s on a slight uptick (after a significant drop):

Giroux promised a playoff spot last year, but that was after a 1-7-0 start, which gave the team a lot more time to right the ship. Even if, at the time, Kyle called G’s remark about only being six points out “the dumbest athlete quote I’ve ever read. Ever.” Also last year, the Flyers went from a 4.37% chance to make the playoffs to actually making the post-season. So, it’s possible. But last season, that 4.37% chance was the season’s low point, in November. This year, there’s a lot less sand in the hourglass.

When he's not writing about sports here or ranting about them on Twitter, Jim is probably watching X-Files on Netflix or drinking a beer somewhere. Jim has nothing against hockey, it's just not his style. He once met Duce Staley at a Sixers game.

This mindset is the difference between the Flyers Management & many fans compared to 15-20 years ago. The Flyers always built teams to win a Stanley Cup, or atleast compete to win a Stanley Cup: The Early 2000’s teams with Roenick & Primeau, the mid 90’s teams with Lindros & Leclair, and the mid 80’s teams with Propp, Howe and Kerr. Lately, they build these teams to hopefully make the playoffs and hope to get hot like the 2010 team did when they made the Cup. The problem is that many of the fans and players feel that is OK, so we have our captain saying for the 2nd straight year, “We are a playoff team!”

Honestly, who cares if they are a playoff team, I want this team built as an elite team for the longrun Sure there is a chance that our goalie gets hot and we make a run like we did in 2010, but that doesn’t happen as much as you think, because most Stanley Cup Winners are the elites in the regular season, with few exceptions like the 2011-12 Kings.

Hopefully Hexy is a seller at the deadline, no matter if we are still in the playoff hunt, cause we need to look longterm. They HAVE to get rid of LeCavalier’s salary somehow, because a 4th line player making 5 million a year is a cap killer. Also, they need to unload Coburn, the Schenn Brothers, and Matt Reid too.

Prior to the salary cap era the flyers would simply go out and buy the players and take on bad salary with out repercussion. This organization has not adapted to the salary cap yet- It’s really amazing to see that they are inside of 1 million dollars to hit the cap limit and other teams like LA, Chicago and Boston (teams that have won a cup and are in a position to do so again) have spent the same amount of money, but have done it the correct way.

I think you have to give Hextall time. Holmgren was no doubt a salary cap retard (and Ed Snider doesn’t give a shit how much money is spent). But you’d think Hextall knows cap management from his time in LA.

He’s already shown a concern for the cap, as he traded a better player in Hartnell for Umberger, all for the cap relief two years sooner that Umberger’s contract provides. That was strictly a cap move, and that’s promising in my eyes.

We have played 51 games, we still have 31 to go. That’s a potential of 62 points. We’re about 10 points out of a playoff spot and currently on a 4 game winning streak… Fuck the stats, we never needed them. It’s about all the guys putting as much effort into their game as Voracek and G have been doing all year. The Flyers have always been streaky, but when they’re hot, they’re hard to stop. We have a solid team with a banged up D-Line, no reason why we can’t sneak in to the playoffs. Heck we beat Pittsburg every time and they’re up there in the east!